It has been over 9 months since my last blog entry. That last entry spoke about starting for Halloween 2008 by attempting to make "paper mache" skulls. Well, not much Halloween stuff has happened since then, but if you read on, you can see why.

Right after that other holiday in 2007, which name shall not be uttered here, my wife and I found out that we were expeciting again. We were still recovering from the fact that our second daughter Layna was born premature on June 12th of 2007 at 34 weeks and spent 26 days in the Neonatal Intensive care Unit (NICU) after having had a collapsed lung. We had said to each other that she was going to be our last child because we didn't want to risk going through that rough pregnancy and NICU aftermath ever again. It is just extremely draining on a person and relationship. But since we both didn't even want to consider having an abortion, we let life run its course and happily accept the fact that we would have a third child to care for and love. We were hoping that the premature delivery and everything that followed would not be repeated.

After dealing with various issues (again) during my wife's pregnancy (fainting, anemia, iron infusions, twice weekly No-Stress-tests starting at week 33, contractions and anti contraction medications etc) we end up in week 36. In week 35 the initial date of an August 26th C-section delivery was set. Week 36: C-section date pulled forward to August 19th which is week 37 due to the wife becoming really uncomfortable, lots of continous contractions and more anemia issues. The Ultra Sound shows the baby could be anywhere between 37 weeks 1 day and 38 weeks 4 days, so technically the baby is full term.

August 19th, 9:39am: our son Zander Johan Gottlieb was born (7lbs 6oz, 19.5 inches). August 20th, 5am: we are woken up by our sons Pediatrician and informed that our son had developed two collapsed lungs and is being prepared to be transferred to a NICU facility in downtown Sacramento. Instead we ask for our son to be transferred to the same NICU Layna received treatment in (the Mercy NICU in Carmichael). So here we are, three kids, 2 end up in NICU within 14 months of each other, with the exact same problems. We have the exact same doctors and nursing staff (tjis is so incredibly comforting, I can't even start to describe that feeling). I think that most people think that we are in denial about the seriousness of our sons condition. However, the medical staff has been expressing that it is actually nice for a change to be able to inform parents and not getting the emotional 'why us' reaction or having to explain in more detail.

It is still unreal to me that I have a son now, and that I will likely be able to get him into doing the Halloween 'thing'.  It is unreal that lightning struck twice with our babies ending up in the NICU with the same issue: our worst nightmare come true.

In the meantime, Halloween time has arrived and various stores are starting to stock their inventory with the beloved items. We also moved to a 3 bedroom duplex just 150 yards up the road while the wife was 32 weeks pregnant and unable to help in 100+F weather. We now have a nice large front lawn that easily could hold a halloween cemetery at least 10 times the size of previous years. I simply do not have enough time to build paper mache corpses fast enough to go 'Pumpkin Rot' at this new location. I'll probably will have to make do with a 24x24 foot cemetery, which still is double the size of last years display.

So much to do, so little time!

-Yaron.

PS: Zander is doing well. It seems like his has gone through the worst and is now on a slow path to full recovery.

Tags: NICU Baby Nightmare

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Hey all,

I've started working on Halloween 2008 already. No really! I started working on paper mache'ing some balloons to make into plan skulls. Using Scott Stoll's how-to of his paper mache deamon skulls.

The first two balloons have their first layers on them and drying. The wife bought me some postboard so I can start to make the cut outs that will form the relief of the skull. Then I plan on doing some "Pumpkin Rot' styue corpse fabrication: I still have some wire mesh and lots of heavy gauge wire (9 and 12 gauge) left from my blucky erecting attempts (which did work by the way).

Ofcourse I am also doing some x-mess stuff: this weekend we put up some icle lights and a wreath on the door. Some more icles need to go up and possibly some more lights. Hope I won't trip the breaker of GFCI like I did last few years...

-Yaron. 

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The last few days before halloween I had to jump into high gear to finish my cemetery columns and the gates. As always, I started to late :) Actually, all I had to do from last year to the columns was: add the top and bottom trim, create a topper and mount the right size gargoyles on top of the columns. Since all this is custom work, it took forever with the few hours I could spare each night. The gates were going to be simple in design but yet always take more time than you think.

It all came down to the day before and the day itself. The day before I finished the gate and finished the detail work on the columns. On the morning of the day itself the columns got their final coat of paint.

Setup of 'Sungonneth Cemetery' started at around 1pm and was done at 4:30pm. It came out awesome! Except for the setup of the lights... I just couldn't get the feeling right like I had last year. Some mid evening adjustments made it slightly better but still, there is room for improvement.

Check out my picture gallery for pictures of the final result and leave me some feedback on what you think.

In total we had about 100 to 120 TOTs. Up from about 60-70 l;ast year. Every year we keep reminding ourselfs to keep a tally, but that is always halfway through the evening. This year we could at least deduct how many we had: we handed out just over a pack of glow bracelets (100 count) that was barely touched last year and we did about 20 out of a brand new pack.

So even though Halloween was on a 'bad' day this year, instead of having less TOTs, we had more. A welcoming surprise.

More kids than last year were afraid to go in: I'd say about a dozen or so. Mind you, no animatronics or moving stuff. Just low laying fog, a 60 minute thunder track on repeat and some flood lights. Some families were posing in front of the cemetery after they TOTed and admiring the setup instead of just quickly walking through the gate, getting the loot and quickly walking past everything.

We had a few kids that made comments about how each year we have the best yard of the neighborhood. That always really strikes the ego. We even had the folks from across the street , who setup a pretty decent scary display come over and make nice comments about the setup. All this is what makes it fun and defenately worth it.

The wife had been making Halloween treats for the few guests we invited over. She made: vampire bite cupcakes, cinnamon sugar donuts, cookies and warm (well, actually lets say 'hot') spiced apple cider. Yummie! WHen it comes to parties she is always in for making fun stuff, even though she claims she is domestically challenged. She is a good cook. Thanks to the cider I was kept warm inside while watching for goblins entering my graveyard.

-Yaron.

PS: a new neighbor came over and asked if I had a use for the flowers she had kept from her late husbands grave. He had died about 7 months ago. I said 'Yes', ofcourse :) So the red and white flowers you see in the pictures had been on an actual grave site for weeks and are now part of the Sungonneth Cemetery prop collection. I decided to not even use my 2 black roses. In fact, in all 3 years the black roses have not been used!

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Looks like I'm finally making some real progress. Yesterday I made the two gates for the cemetery columns.

I cut the PVC at 7' length each, drilled 8 holes in (3) 1x2x8's and hot glued it all together. I used two 1 5/6th black drywall screws to act as the hinge pin and hung the gate on the columns. The gates are halfway done now! Check out the galery for a picture of one of the gates on the column setup for the Fleur de Lis trial run.

I simply taped the Fleur de Lis onto the PVC to give me an idea if the S-curve of the upper arch is going to look okay or not. I was going to alternate the Fleur de Lis with the spiked ball toppers I used on my fence but that ruins the look of the S-curve. Or makes it simply harder to get the right look and feel since the two toppers are of such a different height.

-Yaron.

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I'm finally making progress with my cemetery columns I started last year. Last years pictures in my gallery show the unfinished, plain columns. I uploaded new pictures of the columns being more finished:

Let   me know what you think....

-Yaron.

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Guess what?!? The work on the cemetery columns that I started last year is finally moving into the right direction!!!

I made some molding last night, from strips of foam and created the first portion of the topper that will hold the gargoyles. The molding is simple but works. I had doubts for the longest time that I would be unable to create molding that I liked in these columns, but simple is good.

A quick mock up by the wife, holding up one of the small gargoyles (bought at "Big Lots!" last year) was already looking very promising. The gargoyle was a bit on the small for the size of the column, so wee need to hunt down the big ones. The Big ones at "Big Lots!" are too heavy (clay, cement or something similarly heavy), so we need to rob Target of two of their large gargoyles.

These columns are going to be huge. I forgot the exact dimensions, but I am 6' and I need a step stool to reach the top of em,. Yet I am still unable to actually see the top surface of the plateau. So I guess they top out at 8', probably 8.5' with the large gargoyles on top. I am so phsyched!

Now I need to start thinking of weathering them a bit, and I need to layout the proper gate for it. I have the finials (decorativeiron.com) all ready to go, but the gate should have some nice artwork in/on it as well. Not just straight "schedule 40" made black held up by two or three pieces of 2x1...

Pictures to follow soon in a next blog entry.

 Keep you posted!

-Yaron. 

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As you probably have noticed, I 'stopped' blogging for a while. Reason was related to this cute little baby girl who was on her own special schedule for initial delivery and 'going home'.

I'm glad to note that she went home after spending 26 days at the NICU. She will be 10 weeks old on Tuesday (21st of August '07) and the entire direct family has seen her. This past month we had the following people visit us:

- my mom, dad, younger sister Myrthe and older sister Leonie
- my father in law, Barry and his wife, Becca
- my mother in law, Dana

So, no Halloween life whatsoever, but changing diapers and sleepless nights. Then again, the sleepless nights are not as bad as some peoples. Layna is a fairly good sleeper, a mild baby. Which makes me really proud (and her mommy too). Big sister Sterling hass been a little mommy herself and is really good at helping out with the baby as well. No real jealousy from her side to be noted, yet.

This past friday, Stacey SMSed me that the first Spriti of Halloween store was spotted in the Sacramento area. Now, this really kicked me into the Halloween mood. Now I have to find time between the many work hours, baby cuddle hours (yes, Layna makes me all mooshie-in-love-feeling. Sorry no gore here :), and Sterling 'daddy play with me, please?' playtime.

And time I need: dude, my columns still don't have a top and the trim on the bottom looks awfull. The fence posts need to be trimmed down and installed a better hook-and-eye system to securly fasten the lengths of fence. And the gate doors for the columns are still schedule 40 stock and 2x1's.

I did see at Lowe's a solution to last years thumb problem: last year I used so many spray paint cans (the $1 Walmart kind) that my thumb was numb for over 4 weeks after painting the fence pieces. Lowe's has a gadget that hooks on top of the can and give you a more normal 'lever'. I think it was like the price of 2.5 spray cans (read: $2.50). Hey, what can I say: I don't like a numb feeling in my thumb!

Talking about Walmart, their website is listing a nice 16 inch high Gargole sitting on a ball: that seems to be exactly what I need to top my cemetery columns. Always low price of: $34.95.... Too bad my budget is technically $0 this year. I need to use up the unfinished stock I have first. So it is definitely time to stake out Walmart for the gargoyles, to see if they really are what I need. Plus, schedule time to finish them columns and the gate doors.

Time to go watch the gallery here on Hauntspace for some more inspiration.

Hope to blog more and show new pictures soon of finished halloween gruesomeness!

-Yaron. 

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Tonight, we had just brought the 3 year old Sterling to bed using her normal routine. Less than 5 minutes after we turned off her light, she was knocking on her door. So I go in and ask her what is wrong. She says: "I scared. Papa's Ghost". So I obviously ask: "Where do you see Papa's Ghosts?" She doesn't really answer. So I think for a moment while trying to explain that all my bluckies etc are made of plastic etc, and neatly (well, it was until I needed to get my fogger out; which was the first thing I put away, and hence on the bottom of the halloween pile) stashed away. SInce that wasn't helping I remembered that she had helped make a tiny toni tombstone of foam with 'R I P' on it and some simple cracks. It happened to be in the living room. So I bring her over there and grab the mini tombstone. I ask her: 'Did you make this?". She ofcourse says "Yes!". Then I replied, well, isn't that a "Papa's Ghost"? And she looks at me and then to the stone and says: "Sterlings Papa's Ghost"!. Mission accomplished. I bring her back to her bedroom and goof off for a second or two and toss her back in bed. No more 'I scared' for the night. I love my big kid.

-Yaron.

PS: We got to hold our baby Layna yesterday and today in the NICU. She is doing great: no more tubes, except for the simple breathing tube to provide steady supply of oxygenated air, and a feeding nose tube. The last few X rays of her lungs look fine: w00+!!!

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Can I and my family get a break here? As if the rollercoaster couldn't get any worse. This week has been ass close to the worst week I've ever had in my life. Baby Layna born at 34 weeks and 5 days. Stacey being on her own rollercoaster from hell, thinking several what if scenarios of things that happened during her pregnancy and still dealing with that. Stacey did get discharged from the hospital today, but only to find out that a few hours after we got home that one of our two 17 year old cats (well, tomorrow, would have been 17 years) was wheezing, gasping for air and drooling all over the place.

So we rush Moe Moe (the cat) to the emergency vet hospital. two X-rays later and a bunch of meds we hear that either the lungs are full of cancer or that the heart is about to fail. Either way, the prospects of having a healthy kitty were all gone. So around 7pm we had Moe Moe put to sleep. We all got to hold and cuddle him. I made tons of pictures of him and a few short movies with my phone camera. Recording the last few moments of his life.

Now we are trying to explain Sterling that Moe Moe had to go to the doctor and could not come home with us anymore.

I now also have to support Stacey even more. She had this cat  since she was 10. It was her cat. He guarded her belly while pregnant of both kids and always knew when something was wrong with you. He will be missed very much bad.

Time to cuddle Pooh Bear (Moe Moe's brother). He became my cat by marriage and also will needs even more cuddling than he usually needs. I bet he will crawl on my belly tonight or under the blankies with me.

I'm hoping that the future weeks will be filled with more positive news than this last one. A person can only endure so much...

 Rest in Peace, Moe Moe (6/17/1990 - 6/16/2007) we will never forget you.

-Yaron.

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